MURDER BOARD

Murder Board is a module used to heighten the immersion for investigation-type games, or provide useful group or GM-based tools to visualize and trivialize notetaking procedures.

Getting Started

Installing

⚠️	Keep in mind  that this module is only supported for Foundry v13+

Currently, Murder Board can only be installed if you are a subscriber at the supporter tier and does NOT have an active manifest link, so you must install and update it manually via the download on the Patreon. The steps to install the module are provided in the post itself.

Accessing

In order to access the Murder Board, you must enable it like any other module and then appearing on the main (left) sidebar will have a new icon:

After clicking this icon you will be able to fully access the Murder Board canvas.

Features

Boards

In order to add images and customize the canvas you must first create a board. You can have multiple boards with their own configurations and set of items at the same time. Players can also be on separate boards of their own choosing. By default a board is first created with a blank background image and nothing on it. The Center View button will center your canvas view on the center and Fullscreen makes the canvas into Fullscreen. You may also export or import a JSON of a board of your choosing, allowing you to share or receive others' boards.

If you wish to configure the scale, background image, and default settings of a board, you must access board settings by clicking the gear icon at the top of the tab.

In board settings, you can:

• Change the default canvas color. This will appear by default when there is no custom background image active.
• Change the background image to anything of your choosing, it will be layered over your chosen canvas color and stretch to your chosen background scale.
• Change the background scale, this will make the background image larger or smaller, conversely making the canvas items smaller or larger.
• Change the default Connection color, as well as change the default Connection size.
• Alter player's permissions to edit/view the canvas, or allow all players to edit/view the canvas. (If you would like players to be able to add images to the board you must give them proper permissions in Foundry settings)
• Change the default font color, as well as the default font size.
• Choose to render Connections above Items. This will make connections appear as drawn above Items, rather than the default below.

Canvas

Right-click and drag to pan the Murder Board canvas. When you right-click the Canvas a pop-up will show allowing you to add the item of your choice. All items when uploaded then can be edited by right-clicking on them. All uploads, rotations, sizing, etc, will persist across sessions with no need for a 'save' function. Murder Board currently supports 4 types of uploads:

• Sticky Notes
• Text
• Images
• Documents

Fonts

Most of these items will have text related to them, and by default Murder Board pulls directly from Foundry and your custom fonts. All default font settings can be configured in Board Settings.

Connections

Any item can be Connected with each-other by either dragging one into the other or using Ctrl+C on the selected items. You can edit them by right-clicking the connection. Currently you can add a label to them, change their color, or change their size. Every item can be altered to accept or reject connections by the chain-link button in the bottom left of every item. Connection Labels exist as full editable text, they can be repositioned, styled, and sized just as any text item.

Items can be set to accept or reject connections. This is to aid in layering objects on top of one another without creating a connection. In order for a connection to be established, both items must be set to Accept Connections.

Resizing and Rotating

Any item on the board can be resized and rotated. Both are accessible by clicking on the item and using the red corner-arrows to resize the item, while the green circular icon above is used to rotate the item. You can also rotate items by clicking over an item and using CTRL + SCROLL-WHEEL.

Sticky Notes

Sticky Notes provided a seamless way for you to have immersive text on the board. You may:

• Change the color of the note.
• Change the text color.
• Change the font.
• Enable a drop-shadow or not.

Text

Text, unlike Sticky Notes allows you to simply place text onto the Board without any image or other item attached to it. Text items do not accept connections by default so they can easily positioned near and over other items. You may:

• Change the text color.
• Change the font.
• Enable a drop-shadow or not.

Images

Images are a versatile item that allows you to upload any kind of image you want to the board. Players can add their own images by pasting their own image URL or drag-and-dropping. Images will be automatically uploaded to a new folder called murder-board-uploads in your Foundry User Data. You may:

• Change the border color, or make it have none.
• Change the type of fastener. This will change how the image looks like it is attached to the board.
• Enable a drop-shadow or not.

Documents

Documents, similar to Sticky Notes, create a custom immersive image with a text-overlay. You may:

• Change the document text.
• Change the document type to an immersive style of your choosing.
• Alter the type of fastener.
• Change the color of the document.
• Enable a drop-shadow or not.
• Change the effect of the document. This will make it look as if the document were crumpled, torn, or burned.
• Change the document's font.

Layering

Murder Board supports a z-index similar to Foundry's default canvas. The UI for it will appear on every item on the canvas, and it allows you to layer items below or above relatively. Items in the front will display above items below, meaning higher numbers take priority. Using the arrow buttons will allow you to quickly bring items to the front or back. Make sure when layering that the items you are layering are rejecting Connections.

Hiding

Every Item on the Board is able to be hidden by the GM. This is done by clicking the Eye icon in the bottom-left of the item's edit panel. Connections to and from hidden Items are also hidden until revealed.

Locking

Every Item on the Board can be Locked by both the GM and Players. This is done by pressing the Lock icon in the bottom-left of the item's edit panel. This will prevent the Item from being rotated, moved, resized, etc.

Groups

Groups are a useful function that allows you to quickly move or alter the z-index of a chosen group of items on the canvas. In order to group a set of items you must select multiple of them and right-click the item and click 'Group'. This will then allow you to move them around together or bring them to the front or back on the z-index.

Foundry Native Element Dragging

Murder Board allows you to drag many default Foundry elements right to the canvas. You may drag Actors, Items, Journals, Journal Pages, and Scenes directly to Murder Board. These all behave in specific ways according to the type.

• Actors use the actor portrait.
• Items use the item image.
• Journals create a Document and use the Journal Title as initial text.
• Journal Text Pages create a Document and use the text of the page.
• Journal Image Pages create an Image and use the image of the page.
• Scenes create an Image and use the Image of the scene.
• Journal Page PDFs and Videos are not implemented yet.

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Ctrl+C - Create connections between selected items
• Ctrl+D - Duplicate selected items
• Ctrl+G - Toggle group/ungroup selected items
• G - Toggle group border visualization